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Source: Modern Films

‘Stephen’

Modern Films has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to docu-fiction hybrid Stephen, ahead of its world premiere in international competition at Sheffield DocFest on June 16.

Melanie Manchot’s debut feature film follows Stephen Giddings, a man from an addiction-afflicted family, who auditions for and takes on a film role, while transforming his life in the real world.

Modern is setting a UK-Ireland theatrical release for the latter part of 2023, after the film has played as a video installation at the Liverpool Biennial.

Stephen is produced by Elena Hill, with A Prayer Before Dawn producer Sol Papadopoulos as executive producer.

“Foregrounding the slippages between person, persona, actor, character and role has opened a space for a more fabulative way of working,” says Manchot. “It expands my interest in performance to camera as a way to think through how we all constantly produce and construct identities towards the world.”

Modern Films founder and CEO Eve Gabereau has previously worked in the installation space with Manifesto starring Cate Blanchett with the Tate Modern gallery, Beyond The Visible: Hilma af Klint with the Serpentine Galleries and Mark Lewis’ Invention.